Winter Paper Garland

I was looking for a paper garland for a creative workshop and never really found the one I was looking for. Then I thought maybe I could make one? I’m not exactly that creative when it comes to actually creating things, from scratch. However, when work slows down a little, I do like making little things during the Winter months. You might remember these paper stars I made a few years back. This garland is very similar to make.

You will need:

• paper (I only had this golden tissue paper at home but use any kind and any colour

• scissors

• twine (don’t use garden twine but something a lot thinner)

• glue

Cut out rectangular (or square) but shapes from your paper. You can vary the size of them, of course. Fold them up like a harmonica (as shown) and then make a hole in the middle. I cut it just a tiny bit with the scissors, a small hole enough for the twine to go through. Position your half star where you want it to be on your garland and then glue together the top bits in a way that the twine sits between them. And repeat. As long as you want.

Gravetye Manor in November

I haven’t had the chance of visiting or photographing Gravetye Manor until a week ago. So, when I got an invitation to the launch of the re-release of William Robinson’s wonderful book, I didn’t hesitate long to accept. The visit included an absolutely fabulous talk by Tom Coward, who has been the head gardener of Gravetye for 15 years. He gave us a very interesting, detailed, colourful (and funny too!) talk about William Robinson and the gardens at Gravetye. After the talk, we were treated to a 3-course lunch at their Michelin star restaurant. The meal was so delicious and spent in great company. I don’t know if it counts as rude or not but I just couldn’t wait to get out into the garden so right after “the souflé I will never forget” and before the coffee, I kindly asked if it was possible to leave the table. So after the souflé came the garden.

It was a typical November Saturday, grey with not much light. Still, I did take my camera and captured some details. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I enjoyed looking around the garden. I cannot wait to see it again in the Spring. Or Summer. And Autumn. In all seasons. Do visit, it is beautiful.

Pansy - Antique Shades

I have been growing this kind of pansy for a few years now, it is called Antique Shades. They are F1, so you never know what comes out of the packet but I generally get those beautiful peach, mauve and caramel shades. The flower heads are always quite small, it’s such a lovely little plant. Extremely easy to grow from seeds, once they are ready to plant out, I grow them in bigger pots with other plants around or just individual terracotta pots (on the steps leading from the house to the garden).

This year, I decided to plant a few of these plants into a big pot that is by the pond. You might remember this pot from Spring with tulips in it. Well, now, this pot has a few of these pansies (by the way, do you know the difference between pansies and violas? If a bloom has four petals and three are pointing upwards but one downward, the is a pansy) scabiosa ochroleuca (grown from seeds that I collected from a friend’s garden, thank you Chris) and wild carrots (bought as plug plants) The reasons why I have these plants is two fold, one is that I absolutely love them but secondly, I want them to self seed around the back of the garden where old paving stones are laid and all sorts of treasures grow between them (just to name a few: marjoram, fennel, geranium, cow parsley or campanula) So, fingers crossed they will thrive in this pot and will scatter their seeds in the garden.

While these pansies have generally small heads (not as small as heart's ease or wild pansy) but quite close, this year, some of the plants turned out quite giant compared to the others. I wonder what happened, maybe the simple fact that these are F1 seeds as those blooms are also of various pretty colours.

It doesn’t really matter as I absolutely love them and will continue growing them. Such a pretty and easy, modest and generous plant.

The Garden

A long weekend. And the only one in May I spend at home. Saturday is beautiful and sunny, I could do anything, go for a big walk to see the last of the bluebells in the woods or see masses of cow parsley. But not. I’d rather stay and home and make the most of this special weekend.

The garden is my happy place, it makes me switch off fully. My outdoor meditation. I spend the day outside, first, taking some pictures with the first light, then having my first coffee while enjoying (very much) my new book, then changing into my gardening jeans, picking up my gloves and off I go. I always start my dahlias in pots (it’s good I did as 3 tubers don’t show any sign of life) and time has come for those to be put in their final place. I take some cuttings to have a few extra plants (replacing those 3 that don’t seem to live). Then I plan the order of the dahlias. To my surprise, most of the colours are shades of orange, funny how one’s taste can change. Noticing my orange tulips too.

Then I sort out my plant nursery, which isn’t a nursery at all, just a small area by the shed where I keep plants that will go out in the garden soon. Either I grew them from seeds or plants I was gifted or plants I bought. I cherish them all the same way. When all the forget-me-nots are over and their absence reveal all the empty space, I can fill that with these plants. I remove bulbs that flowered, the bulbs go in the shed and the pots are filled with plants especially from this plant nursery stock. I also refresh the pots outside the front door. We eat lunch. Outside. In the sunshine. I wouldn’t want to be walking in the woods seeing the last of blubells. It’s absolutely perfect here.

After lunch, I tackle the perennial border that runs the long of the first part of the garden. Ground elder likes creeping in and I always try to keep this area free of that agressive weed (yes, weed). Time flies. Cold drinks arrive and I start to slow down. And when the sun starts to drop, the camera comes out again. I steal a moment here and there when the light is right.

On Sunday, a new camera arrives (should have come on Saturday but hey), a different one to the ones I’ve been used to so I spend quite some time learning about it (reading the manual, yes, that is a thing) and just experimenting with it as I’m planning to take it to an exciting shoot on a sunny island this weekend.

I hope you’ve all had a lovely long weekend. My weekends at home are now over for the foreseeable so I really wanted to make the most of these days.

PS - the cherry on the cake was a misty Tuesday morning.

Glenuig and Sanna

While up in the Highlands in October (this way), we spent a lot of time in Glenuig. It was only a 10 minute drive from our cottage (always welcomed by sheep), the only place with a tiny shop nearby but most importantly, it had a sweet little beach that at low tide was the perfect place for Finn to burn his energy off (if such thing exists). One day, we went for a walk in the woodland just off the coast there and it was again, just magical.
Although beaches, lochs and the sea were constant in our days, I realize most of the images are of hills, glens or woodland. I’m just so much more drawn to these places.

One afternoon, one our way home from another day out, we stopped at Glenuig and the beach was full of sheep. We waited until they moved into the woodland bit and let Finn out for a run. I just love these wee creatures dotted all over Scotland.

Sanna. I cannot recommend visiting Sanna highly enough. But. Sanna was 30 miles from our cottage and took us nearly 2 hours to get there. It was raining but that wouldn’t have been a big issue in its own. But. The road was very scenic, very windy and very narrow. But oh my. It must be one of the most beautiful drives I’ve experienced. Driving past sheep, of course, highland cows, of course and we even spotted a stag.

Sanna itself is a tiny hamlet of a few houses and crofts. And unspoilt beaches. Sandy dunes and black, volcanic basalt rocks.

October in the Highlands

Silverbirch, beech, bracken, heather, sea weed, white sands, sheep, highland cows, rain and sun, big skies and rocks, lochs and glens, on repeat.

Late October, we spent a week up in the Highlands. Places get booked up really quickly nowadays, so I was happy when we found this lovely cottage online, still available. And dogs allowed too! It didn’t have wifi or phone signal in and around the cottage at all but that’s just what we needed. It had, however, a log burner and a week supply of logs. Perfect.

We travelled via Glencoe as the road to the Forth Bridges was closed. I didn’t mind it at all as driving through Glencoe is one of my favourite things to do in Scotland. After Glencoe, as we really get into the Highlands, the spaces open up and the sky just gets bigger and bigger. Traffic is almost non existent. This is what I really wanted from this holiday after a busy year.

We stopped in Fort William to stock up on food supplies. It was another hour from there until we got to the cottage. A very long drive all in all but it was so worth it as it all slowed down after.

The drive to our cottage with views of Loch Moidart.

The Cottage. And lichen covered trees everywhere.

From a walk on our doorstep..

We walked a lot and one of our best walks was the one to the Singing Sands in Kentra bay. This beach is not accessible by car so you have to walk to it and it’s totally worth it. This walk led us through a variety of scenery but most if it was through a forestry plantation - pine trees as far as you could see. It was absolutely magical and you were almost waiting for a fairy to appear. It rained a lot, more like a heavy drizzle than heavy rain but it was enough for us to get soaked as we walked there. When we stopped, all we could hear is the raindrops gently landing on the trees and the ground. Absolutely peaceful. This peacefulness followed us to the beach too, there was not a soul and Finn enjoyed having the whole place to himself. Well, and me too, I must say. I didn’t bring my camera here. It was a long walk through woodland and I just didn’t fancy carrying it for hours and in the rain. The phone worked just fine capturing moments to forever remember this special place.

We went to other beaches too, like the Silver Sands of Morar, near Mallaig. While Finn was chasing a ball, I was admiring all the colours and textures. I also had a little commission of photographing sea weed and it was the perfect place for it.
Silver Sands is more popular as it’s very easily accessible. When I say more popular, imagine maybe maximum 12 people on the beach. On a huge beach.

Someone once told me one shouldn’t include too many images in a blog post so here you go, I’ll continue with more images in a different post.

Quince jelly

I remember the quince tree in my grandmother’s garden. It was an old tree with long branches and big yellow fruits. She didn’t use the fruits every year but when she did, she made quince paste (membrillo) from them.

Quinces are one of my favourite things of Autumn. They are very often overlooked and not many people use or even know them.

I love their uneven and bumpy surface, the colour of their skin and their amazing fragrance. I love seeing them as they grow, I absolutely love photographing them and I love them in the kitchen, too.

I have been making quince jelly for a while now (occasionally membrillo too) and below you’ll find the recipe I use. Quince jelly is not difficult to make but you’ll need quite a lot of time.

Recipe

1.6 kg quince, washed, stems removed, cored, quartered but leave the skin on
1.6 litre of water
Equivalent amount of sugar for each 120ml juice that will cook out of the quince
This amount generally gives me about 5x120ml juice.

Method
Prepare the quince. Wash them, remove stems and core but leave skin on. Cut them into quarters.
This will take just a few minutes. For this amount, I usually need 5-6 quinces, depending on their size.

Put the quince in a pot (a cast iron or similar), add the water and cook until soft.
Mash the quince - I use a potato masher - until it looks something like in the picture below. Make sure it’s not too thick as you’ll need the juice of it. If it’s too thick, add more water.

Ladle your quince pulp into a very fine mesh strainer and let the pulp strain. I often just use a linen cloth. I either keep it over a strainer or just hang it and let the juice drip.

This should take a few hours. During this time, you can prepare your jars. I sterilize them in the oven (leave them in there for 15 minutes on 150 degrees)

Once I have all the juice from the pulp, I measure it. For each 120ml juice, you’ll need about 110g sugar.
Bring the juice to the boil (I use the same thick bottom cast iron pot as earlier but clean it after I cooked the quince in it) and stir constantly so that the sugar dissolves. Skim off any foam that comes to the surface.

Your quince juice should boil and when it reaches 103-104 celsius (I use a thermometer), you can pour the jelly into your jars. Quince has a lot of pectin in it, so it will set quite quickly.

And then enjoy. We love it most with cheese.

Daucus Carota

When the heat was gone and the light wasn’t too strong and blinding, I went for a walk around the field at the back of our house. There are masses of wild carrots growing there now so I picked some. Wildflowers and July go hand in hand for me. I absolutely love seeing them grow by the side of the motorways (and I’ve seen a lot of those lately) and by roads of any description really.
I didn’t take my camera for the walk but I took some pictures later when I brought the bunch back home and here they are.